


The Wild

by weakinteraction



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 14:58:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7897117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/pseuds/weakinteraction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The captain and first officer of the ISS Enterprise find far more than they ever expected on Talos IV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wild

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



_Captain's Log, Stardate 1085.4_

_The Enterprise has entered the Talos system as part of our ongoing survey mission for the Empire. We have focused on the fourth planet, an M-class world, and have entered into orbit._

Pike swept his tricorder around the clearing. The preliminary assessment showed no threats present, so he moved on to studying the secondary readings. But they couldn't capture the beauty of the glade, the soft spring of the grass beneath his feet, the green-tinged sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees and the babbling of a stream somewhere in the distance.

His first officer stepped out of the trees, her own tricorder held high, taking atmospheric readings.

"Report, Number One," he said.

"Isotopic abundances are entirely in line with the metallicity of the planet's star," she said. "If there was every a civilisation here in the distant past, it didn't destroy itself with nuclear weapons."

So many worlds the Enterprise had claimed for the Empire in the course of their mission so far had shown evidence of such conflicts, be it a ruined, bombed-out surface or more subtle clues like the presence of unnatural isotopes. Number One had often debated with him whether there was something inherently self-destructive about intelligent life in the universe, wherever it might arise.

"My readings indicate a mature, stable ecosystem," Pike said.

Number One nodded. "Reports from other teams are consistent with our findings. Spock confirms that orbital scans reveal the same conditions across the surface, to a quite remarkable extent." Her voice took on an uncharacteristically wistful tone. "A world completely untouched by war or violence or even plague." Her face was animated by emotions she so rarely allowed herself to display on duty: wonder and joy. He doubted she would have been so open with herself if any of the rest of the crew were here. But it was wonderful to see her like this: relaxed, almost happy. "It's really quite beautiful."

"Yes... Beautiful," Pike said, but it wasn't the planet he was thinking of.

"One might almost say a new Eden," Number One continued.

Pike coughed. "What is the potential utility of this planet for the Empire, Number One?"

Number One consulted her tricorder. "Based on our preliminary findings, this could become a prime agricultural colony world. Maximum output would be sufficient to feed the populations of a dozen planets... but only after several centuries of development."

"So, a far worse investment than pacifying an already productive agrarian planet."

"And what happens when every planet is pacified?"

These debates were a staple of their late night conversations aboard ship. Discussing whether the policies of the Empire were wise, or just, would be treason, for that was axiomatic. But to discuss the best way for the Empire to ensure its long-term future, that was surely the act of a true loyalist. And yet neither of them was ever quite fully open in their conversations, never completely unable to put aside the possibility of the other trying to goad them into saying something inadvisable, either for their own petty reasons, or because they were an operative of Section 31. And there were other things unspoken too, things that really shouldn't remain unclear between two people who spent so much time together.

They needed to get back to work, so Pike settled for saying, "It's a very big galaxy, Number One." This was no counter-argument really, but it was one they had already thrashed out at length; he had spent many a night entertained by her calculations of how long it might take the Empire to pacify it completely, the strange modifications that might have to be made to enable their centuries-distant successors to cross the void to other galaxies to continue the march of conquest.

Her lips twitched in the ghost of a smile before she resumed her usual serious expression. "In the short term, this planet might make itself useful to us as a place to have some shore leave."

Pike sighed. "We desperately need some but this isn't the right place for it. The crew don't need to be lulled by a place like this, they need to let off steam after too long on board. If we bring them down here, they'll take it out on each other. And I can't run my ship with half the crew in the sick--"

He stopped talking as soon as he heard a rustling in the trees; looking around, he saw a grey-clad figure racing deeper into the woods. He turned to Number One as she turned to him, the exchange of a glance all they needed to establish that they had both seen it. And yet both the ship's sensors and the tricorders had shown no life signs for anything larger than a wolf.

They raced for the trees, drawing their phasers as they went. As the forest became denser, it was harder to track the figure, but then they heard a crack as whatever or whoever it was stepped on a twig. He gestured to Number One to circle round while he took the direct route.

As he approached, he could hear heavy, laboured breathing. Their fugitive was slowing down, unable to match the fitness and stamina of two elite members of the Imperial Starfleet.

As he closed in on it, the figure was human. But from the way it was dressed, in a simple grey shift, surely not one of his own crew.

"Halt!" Pike shouted as he levelled his phaser. "In the name of the Empire!"

The figure turned round and Pike saw it was a young woman, her face badly scarred but undeniably human.

"Help!" she shouted, looking all around her. "Help!"

"There's no one here to help you," Pike said. "No one except us."

The girl looked scared but defiant. "The Empire doesn't help anyone without a price. A price that's not worth paying." Suddenly her expression changed into a mocking, almost leering smile as she looked not at Pike but behind him. "And you're wrong. You're so very, very wrong. I've always got help here."

Pike risked a glance behind him and was startled to see three tall aliens looming out of the forest. He tried to swing his arm round to fire his phaser at them but found it suddenly immobile. He concentrated with all his might but some greater will than his own seemed to be holding it in place.

"Come, Vina," the alien in the middle of the three said to the girl. "You are safe now." The girl ran to him.

From the trees, another trio of aliens emerged, Number One walking ahead of them. Her movements seemed jerky and unnatural, like a puppet, and her face was contorted in a mixture of defiant rage and shame.

"You're telepaths," he said. At least they were allowing him control of his voice. "But more powerful than any we've ever encountered before." The Empire had telepaths, not least the Vulcans -- Spock's abilities had proven extremely useful in many interrogations when conventional torture had failed -- but nothing on this scale of complete control without even physical contact.

"You will come with us now, Christopher Pike."

* * *

They had been taken underground to a fabulous city of interconnected caverns. Once they were satisfied that Pike and Number One were not going to resist, and that Vina was safe, their captors became more communicative. They explained that their planet had never known war -- with perfect telepathic communication between one another, there was no sense in inflicting pain that you yourself would feel, and moreover no conflict that could not be resolved by understanding the other's point of view. Millennia ago, having perfected all the branches of science they cared to know, they had left the surface of their world to revert to its natural state and now conducted their lives in cities like this one scattered across the entire planet.

"You are estimating our total population," one of the Talosians accompanying them said, reading his mind.

"You are considering how the Empire could use so many powerful telepaths," another added.

"Even while yourself a captive, you plot to make an entire species your slaves," said a third.

"You will fail," they all said together.

Pike glanced at Number One and saw her eyes narrow slightly, but it was enough for him to know that she found the effect of them all speaking in unison as uncanny as he did.

They were being taken to someone that the universal translator decided was best called the Magistrate. Some of the caverns were small, others the size of a cathedral. What furnishings and equipment they saw all seemed incomprehensible in purpose. Number One asked whether the smaller ones were individual's houses while the larger ones were communal areas and workspaces, but the question only made sense to the Talosians once they had read her mind: the concept of private property was as foreign to them as war. They slept wherever it was convenient when they felt tired, and their work was largely conducted telepathically; if physical proximity was required for some particular task, they simply met somewhere between their original locations.

That seemed to apply to the Magistrate too; he had been making his way over and when they finally met up with him, the room they were standing in -- about the size of the bridge on the Enterprise -- became his de facto courtroom. He was the same height as the other Talosians, but his bulbous head was outsized even by their standards, arteries pulsing visibly on its surface.

"I am the most powerful telepath in the city," he intoned, in answer to the question Pike had not even had time to formulate fully. "As such it falls to me to co-ordinate and speak for all when that is necessary."

"He speaks for all of you?" Number One asked the Talosians who had been escorting her.

"Yes," they said in unison with Pike's own guards and the Magistrate himself.

"We know that much has been explained to you," the Magistrate said. "But also that you still have questions. You may speak them if it makes you more comfortable."

"There _are_ a few things that still don't make sense," Number One said.

"You mean me," said Vina. Number One nodded curtly. "I was only a child when our ship crash landed. A prison transport, taking us to a new dilithium mining colony. I was never convicted of any crime other than to be born in prison, but my parents... My parents and their friends, their only crime was to speak out against the evils of the Empire."

"The Empire--" Pike began.

The Magistrate interrupted. "There was a riot on board the ship. The prisoners took over but in a final act of vengeance the captain locked the controls on a collision course with our planet. Vina was the sole survivor. As you can see, she was badly injured. We were able to restore her, but not without scarring. We offered her the opportunity to live in an illusionary world, but to her great credit she rejected it."

"They showed me the truth of who I was," Vina said. "I can tell that I look ugly to you, but I know that I am beautiful inside."

"But why didn't you send a distress call?" Number One asked.

"It would have been better to die than to be captured by the Empire!" Vina said hotly.

"Surely not," Number One said. "Even a hard life--"

"Stop." The voice of the Magistrate was amplified by the others around them speaking at the same time. The Magistrate continued, "Why do you continue even now to lie to yourself?"

"What do you mean?" Pike asked.

"The two of you defend a regime you know to be indefensible. Do not forget we can see your true thoughts in your mind. If we could not, we would never have permitted you to enter our city. You would merely have had your minds influenced to make you leave us alone."

"You can do that?" Number One asked.

"Of course. But we always prefer truth to illusion where possible. We will show you the truth you hide from yourself."

He could feel the force of the Talosians in his mind, but it was different from the first time. Then it had been a matter of them simply overriding his will, now it was much more subtle, exploring his entire being. He felt as though his personality was spread out on the dissection table, each individual part and the ways they interacted being analysed and catalogued: his earliest memories, his most secret desires, the thoughts that woke him in the early hours and refused to let him return to sleep.

_The Empire is a brutal regime, everyone knows that. But it is inherently unstable and unsustainable, precisely because of that brutality, which creates the conditions for collapse. The ends cannot justify the means when the means prevent the ends from being achieved. And yet where do I fit into this system? Not some powerless slave, but a willing tool of tyranny._

As the process continued, he felt a strange dissonance, as though he was seeing himself from the outside, yet still through his own eyes. And the Magistrate was right: it was indefensible. _He_ was indefensible. And so, surely, he must change.

But he could feel that it wasn't just his mind that the Talosians had opened wide to self-scrutiny. Connected in the same telepathic circuit was Number One, her doubts and fears, her hopes and dreams. Without realising what was happening, he suddenly knew that he was feeling her thoughts the way the Talosians could.

_I only ever wanted to see the stars. Was that so very wrong of me? And yet to do so I have unleashed the forces of creation on unsuspecting innocents more times than I care to count._

And there were other thoughts, too, thoughts of him: respect for his abilities, admiration for his accomplishments, enjoyment of his company. Was that love? What was love, in a society such as theirs? And there was something, buried deep: a fantasy of what it might be to be the Captain's Woman; not any Captain, this one particular Captain, even though what made him special was that he would never ask that of her...

He broke off the contact, feeling that he had intruded too far. But he could feel that the link was reciprocal, that his mind was as laid bare to her as hers was to him. She could see all the ways that he wished the universe was different, from the way the Empire was run to the way commanding a starship made relationships difficult, not least with the first officer...

Suddenly, it was over. They were standing back in the courtroom, where they had always been, but now aware of their surroundings again. Aware of each other in a new way. Pike was acutely conscious of the way he could not help himself staring at Number One, but she was equally drawn to his gaze. It felt as though they were seeing each other for the first time.

"What have you done?" Number One asked.

"We have released you from the cage of your own preconceptions, broken the illusions you live by," the Magistrate said. "Allowed you to see the truth you always knew was there. That is all."

Number One seemed, for once, lost for words. Pike spoke for both of them. "We can change. The Enterprise can be the agent of that change, not just for us but throughout the quadrant. We--"

"While we abhor the inevitable violence your intentions would lead to, we commend your determination to atone for the many injustices you have wrought," the Magistrate said. "However, we cannot allow you to continue with this course of action when it has no possibility of success."

"No possibility of success? Whatever can you mean? I've been the most decorated captain in the fleet, I can be the Empire's worst traitor just as well."

"The lieutenant in charge of the Western survey--"

"Kirk," Number One said instantly. She had always had a much better grasp on the crew than him. In the past, he had worried that if she had wanted to take over from him she would not lack for followers. But after their experience in the Talosian mind-link, he knew that she had always been truly loyal.

The Magistrate nodded. "We have seen in his mind some most disturbing information. He has obtained a device capable of obliterating people from reality altogether at the touch of a switch. He has it secreted aboard your ship. He means to use it to destroy the two of you and take command."

"Well, that's simple. We'll order some loyal security officers to search his quarters and destroy anything they find. Not all of security owes him personal fealty, do they?"

"Not all of them," Number One said guardedly.

"He intends to make his move before you leave the planet," the Magistrate said. "His team approaches your last location on the surface even now."

"Then it's over," Number One said. "We have to go back. If he comes searching for us and finds the Talosians he'll destroy the entire planet."

Pike crossed to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "No, don't say that. Never say that. There must be another way." He turned to the Magistrate. "Mustn't there?"

The Magistrate was silent for a moment, communing with the population of the city. "It will not be easy," he said, "but there may be a way to ensure both your safety and our own."

* * *

Pike and Number One acted out their own roles in the macabre scenario, though for them the Talosians deliberately made the illusion imperfect, so that they did not become completely swept away by it. They debated with Kirk in the forest, along with a Talosian pretending to be a member of a much weaker race than was the truth, before being "beamed up". It was odd to see Kirk grand-standing in front of the members of the security division loyal to him -- he had clearly been planning this move for some time, would have come up with some excuse sooner or later -- in a transporter room surrounded by trees. Odder still to be in the brig, knowing that no walls or forcefield really held them.

But they had to maintain the illusion for just a little while longer. This was the crucial part. Now that they were safely locked up and unable to rally those members of the crew still loyal to them, Kirk would use his alien device to dispose of them. Once they were gone, no one who wanted to remain alive themselves would be asking too many questions about how it had been achieved.

Suddenly the illusion faded around them and they were back in the forest. The Magistrate stepped out of the trees. "It is done. He believes you are dead."

They could still see Kirk a distance away in the trees, still wrapped up in the illusion the Talosians had created.

"Now the real work begins," Number One said.

And work indeed it was -- the most vital work, perhaps, that Pike had ever done, and certainly the hardest, despite the fact that it all took place while he simply stood there in the middle of a part of the forest that could have been anywhere on the planet.

He could sense the extent to which the work taxed the Talosians too. The Magistrate was now being psychically boosted by all his compatriots in other cities across the planet, an entire world dedicating itself to the task of hiding itself from a deadly enemy.

Soon, it began: Kirk, convinced as had been intended by Pike's speech about the impossibility of subjugating the Talosians, ordered total bombardment with the ship's full weapons array. Creating such an enormous illusion clearly wasn't possible without some psychic bleedthrough: as it went on, there were moments when Pike could see the trees on fire, the air filling with smoke and ash, and then as it concluded, even the ground beneath their feet liquefying to magma. It was terrible enough to witness even for him: what must it be like for the Talosians to have to imagine the destruction of their beautiful world in such horrific detail?

But he could not dwell on such thoughts; his mind was wholly dedicated to the complex task of ensuring the deception would hold, that the Empire would believe Kirk's report. Between his intimate knowledge of ship procedures and Number One's technical prowess, the Talosians were able to take control of the right crew members on board the Enterprise to fake the sensor logs and other evidence that would make the illusion last.

The final step was the most difficult, and almost entirely down to Number One. With her guidance, the Talosians controlled the transporter chiefs to beam Kirk and the other away team members back to the ship, directly to the locations they believed they were already in. Only a theoretical possibility with the Empire's current technology, made real by the Talosians ability to extrapolate from one extraordinary woman's knowledge.

After it was accomplished, Pike could sense the size of the psychic circuit he was part of diminishing. The Talosians from other cities were returning to their everyday lives, the most momentous event on their planet in many generations having passed the moment of greatest crisis.

But the Magistrate and the hundreds of thousands of Talosians in the city beneath their feet who were lending him their telepathic powers remained hard at work, maintaining the illusion of the ruined surface in the minds of the Enterprise crew into the ship broke orbit and went to warp.

Pike felt a stab of regret as he saw the flash in the sky above them, their only way back to the lives they had known disappearing forever. "What have we done?" he asked Number One quietly.

"Something we've never done before," Number One said. "But perhaps something we should have done a long time ago. Turned away from death to give life a chance."

"We are dead," he reminded her. "As far as the Empire is concerned." He thought for a moment. "Do you think there's any way we can fight back against them? With a Base hidden like this--"

"We cannot put an entire civilisation at risk for such schemes," Number One said. "That is what the Empire would do. But if there's anyone who can work out how to do it safely, it's you. But there is work to do there as well. While we were in the link, I could sense the Talosian scientists' concern that another ship would detect the planet's life."

"The Empire won't send any ships this way in a hurry," Pike said.

"One day, though, they will. And we need to be ready. I think... I think I can help them."

"I think you already have," Pike said. "But I know you better than to try to dissuade you when you've got your teeth into a project."

Number One grinned at him. "Didn't take me long, did it?" She cooked an eyebrow. "Mind you, you're the one already plotting a revolution."

"Touché."

The Magistrate stepped forward from the group of Talosians nearby.

"Thank you," Pike said sincerely. "To all your people. What you have done is unbelievable."

"The illusion came closer to breaking than you may have realised. We needed the talents of all Talosians. Another example of the foolishness of war; if we had reduced our own population by such means, we would never have been able to accomplish such feats."

"We are extremely grateful," Number One said.

"We extend to you the same hospitality as Vina has received these many years," the Magistrate went on. "You may live in any illusory environment you desire. If not, and we hope you will choose not to, you may live with us in our cities or here on the surface as you choose."

They looked at each other, not needing a psychic link to know one another's answer. They might have lost the ability to travel between them, but they couldn't shut themselves off from the stars entirely. "The surface," they said in unison. "But we will be visiting often," Number One added.

"You know, what you said earlier about starting a revolution..." He turned to the Magistrate. "Were there any others like us, on the Enterprise? People with doubts about what we're doing out here?"

"Not that we could detect as we were manipulating their minds."

Pike thought about the implications: that almost the entire crew was loyal to the appalling regime on an ideological basis, not simply a pragmatic one as he had allowed himself to believe he had until the Talosians had forced him to confront his hypocrisy. Then again, perhaps it was a selection bias: true loyalists were far more likely to make it onto the flagship than others. Not all humans felt the same way; Vina's tragic story proved that. Perhaps that was where the revolution would come from: the oppressed and disenfranchised.

Lost in these thoughts, he was surprised when Number One asked, "What about Spock?"

"His mind is more difficult for us to read," the Magistrate admitted. "But if he does have doubts, his ability to argue against himself is too highly developed to allow them to come to the surface. Perhaps, just perhaps, if he encountered some concrete, incontrovertible evidence that there is a better way, he might change his mind."

"So we might see him again?" Number One said.

"It is possible that in the right circumstances, if he did begin to question everything about his world, that he would be able to detect our deception," the Magistrate said.

"And he would realise that we might still be alive here?" Number One said.

"Can you imagine it?" Pike said. "Spock commandeering the Enterprise to bring it to Talos IV just for us?"

"Stranger things have happened," Number One said. She took his arm and led him deeper into the forest. Away from the Talosians, Pike thought, though whether that was intentional or not he was unsure. "I wonder what he would find years from now, if he did."

The sight of the forest in twilight was almost eerie after seeing such a convincing illusion of its destruction. But soon he found himself lost in the singing of the avian life forms, the chirping of the invertebrates.

He sighed deeply. "It really is a new Eden."

"A new Eden in need of a new Adam and Eve?"

Pike swallowed. "I--"

She touched his arm. "The Talosians didn't show us anything we didn't already know, deep down. Captain-- Christopher..."

The only reply he could give her was a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> This is perhaps how the Talosians dealt with them more than how they dealt with the Talosians, but the idea of how this all worked out in the mirror universe was a very intriguing prompt. I'm conscious that I haven't followed spinoff canon for Mirror Talos IV, but then again spinoff canon states that there's more than one mirror universe...


End file.
